Best Buy yanks HP Chromebook 11 from store shelves

HP and Google have asked retailers to stop selling the HP Chromebook 11 because of an overheating charger, the companies said Wednesday.

Both Google and HP said they are "pausing sales" of the laptop "after
receiving a small number of user reports that some chargers included
with the device have been damaged due to overheating during use."

The companies are working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to
figure out next steps, but, in the meantime, HP Chromebook 11 owners
should stop using the charger that came with the laptop.

"In the interim, they may continue using their HP Chromebook 11 with any
other Underwriters Laboratories-listed micro-USB charger, for example,
one provided with a tablet or smartphone. We apologize for the
inconvenience," reads a statement issued by Google and HP.

The statement was in response to media inquiries as to why
retailers tasked with selling the HP Chromebook 11 stopped carrying the
laptops without explanation.

A scan of Best Buy's Web site and Amazon.com Wednesday showed the
product was no longer available. What's more is Best Buy was urgently
removing the HP Chromebook 11 from its stores, according to The Verge.

Store managers were ordered through an internal memo to stop selling the
$279 laptop "immediately" and to remove any stock from its shelves,
unnamed Best Buy sources told The Verge.

HP and Google introduced the laptop in October and forged a partnership with Best Buy and Amazon
to sell it in the US. While Best Buy has removed the listing from its
online store completely, Amazon has only stopped selling it directly.
Amazon's third-party sellers still have some listings. HP also has removed the listing from its Web site.

Donna Tam is a staff writer for CNET News and a native of San Francisco. She enjoys feasting, merrymaking, checking her Gmail, and reading on her Kindle. Before landing at CNET, she wrote for daily newspapers, including the Oakland Tribune, The Spokesman-Review, and the Eureka Times-Standard.